hCG Diet Interviews – Episode 20 – 50 lb weight loss in 12 weeks

Hello lovely hCGers. This interview is part of what is now a plethora of weight loss success stories with real everyday women (and men! There’s a few dude interviews in there) who have used either hCG injections or drops with the hCG diet protocol to lose between 20 and 150 lbs.

See all the hCG interview episodes
These are in-depth conversations one-on-one with hCG ladies where you get to hear their whole weight loss story and the tips that helped them succeed.

Read short written hCG testimonials
These are short testimonials of ladies who’ve written in their hCG diet results to me for quick motivation.

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Mary, where did your knees and neck go btw?

I’d like to start this interview by giving a shout out, not to Mary, but Mary’s husband. Mary’s husband are you there? We think you’re awesome. We know you love Mary.

Mary shared with us that her husband married her as a bigger woman, which is actually the before photo you see here of Mary (way to go on the non traditional dress lady!) So Mary’s husband, I guess it’s all just guacamole on the paleo chicken dish from here eh!

It’s such a blessing when a husband loves and cherishes his wife just as she is. My husband never made me feel bad about being overweight or pressured me to change. He let me be however I was- thin or overweight. I really appreciate this about him because I feel to experience the opposite actually becomes a barrier to making this particular life change.

A fantastic quote from Mary herself,

“A failure to launch is sometimes more educational than a total stellar success.”

Mary’s Weight Loss Journey With hCG Injections

Height: 5’2″
Age: 40 years old
Starting weight: 250 something lbs
Ending weight: 183.4 lbs
Total weight loss: over 60 lbs
Total hCG Rounds: 2
Weight Loss Time Frame: All weight lost between January and June of 2014.
Type of hCG used: Injections (if you are interested in sources for this you can compare choices here.)
Dosage: 125iu

Mary lost about 25 lbs in each of 2 rounds of hCG of about 6 weeks each. She lost several additional pounds during Phase 3.
Essentially what we’re saying here is that in a period of 12 weeks she lost 50 lbs. 12 weeks is 3 months guys. Of course since she took a break between her rounds, we say between January and June- however, the actual amount of time Mary spent “on a diet” being under her calorie balance, was only 12 weeks.

Rayzel: Hey guys! Hcgchica! Guess what? We’re on Episode 20. 20 Episodes now of the hCG Diet Interviews. I’m so excited. I can’t believe it’s been that many now and today I actually have Mary with me. She’s lost over 60 pounds with this hCG protocol and one of the things we’re going to talk about today that I’m excited about is how things have changed for her in regards to ccravings and the feeling of being hungry all the time and stuff like that. She’s noticed a drastic change in what life used to be like for her and how things are now. So that’s just one of the things that we’re gonna talk about today. So welcome Mary! How are you today?
Mary: Hi! How are you?
Rayzel: I’m good. So give me just a few basic stats like how old are you? How tall are you?
Mary: As of May I’m 40 and I’m 5’2’’ and I don’t think I’m getting any taller. I’ve finally given up the hope.
Rayzel: I keep telling my son, he’s going to be like my height when he’s 11. That’s so weird.
Mary: Right. That’s not bad.
Rayzel: Yeah I know. It’s just so bizarre.
Mary: Right now I weigh 183.4 pounds and I started after my load, my first, I did a 3 day load by the way, and January of this year I was at 249.9. It’s the biggest I’d ever been in my whole life and I was ready to have done with it.
Rayzel: Yes. So basically from January to—
Mary: This morning.
Rayzel: Well you’ve been off of hCG for a while though, right?
Mary: Yeah, 2 months.
Rayzel: Yeah, so you finished your last round, when was it?
Mary: At the very beginning of June.
Rayzel: Yeah, so from January to June is when you lost over 60 pounds. During that time so from 250 practically to 180 something. Between January and June.
Mary: 183.4
Rayzel: Yeah you know hCGers do that. We all know like “No I don’t weigh 125, I weigh 125.6.”
Mary: Yeah. Today. Today. We’ll see tomorrow it might be up a little, down a little but it’s been really really steady this last P3 and I’m still on P3 and I’m gonna stay on P3 until I do my next round. Until I get to goal.
Rayzel: And we’ll talk more about that too as we go on because that’s one of the things people get so nervous about is how I know that I can maintain this or how do I do that. So we’ll talk about that. So how has your weight loss that you’ve had so far? How has that affected your clothing size?
Mary: Well, it’s funny, I was doing the before and after pics for you today and I put on my wedding dress. Of course, I would be getting a married for the 2nd time but I wouldn’t be getting married at my heaviest. Like you said, he really loves me, he really loves me.
Rayzel: Yeah, I know, I thought that was actually really sweet because now you don’t have to worry about that. It’s a little scary. [crosstalk]
Mary: So that was a size 16. So when I try it on, it hung on me. So I’m probably a 10? Or a top 12. And it’s true that hCG changes your body composition because I’ve never had what you called like slender legs but now, even though I’m still not at my goal weight, I feel like my body is in more proportion. I don’t feel like I have problem areas anymore. I just have a bit of weight to lose.
Rayzel: Yeah but it’s like more evenly distributed. Your kind of a shape you’re going to be at the end just slightly larger.
Mary: Right. It’s so interesting because I’ve gain and lost a million pounds. I don’t even want to know. I wish I had money each time the pound I’ve gain but I’m telling you my body is different. It’s a good feeling.
Rayzel: It’s kind of neat you mentioned that because that was actually one of the things I mentioned too. Actually with my et round, it was a round that I lost very little weight actually. It was only 7 pounds in 3 weeks and I was getting leaner though. But anyway, nevertheless, it still kind of hmm, that doesn’t seem normal. However, even though it was a small amount of weight loss that round, that was the round my leg shape changed the most also and I’m like you. I’ve always had thicker legs out of my body even when I was really thin in high school. My legs are still a little tree trunks that’s what I refer them they didn’t have much shape. And yeah they had a shape, I thought that these were attractive.
Mary: Mine has always had shape, just a lot of shape.
Rayzel: Too much.
Mary: Too much. That was weird right. You said something about how hCG- I’m gonna keep referring to you, I hope that doesn’t freak you out- you said something about how hCG body shapes are different and nice. If one of the nice shape and I thought yeah cause they weigh less. No, no, no, the composition’s different, I know what you mean now and it’s true. My mom even said something like where’d your legs go? I don’t know, I’m not gonna find out.
Rayzel: We’re leaving that outside. Tell us real quick you’ve done how many rounds of hCG now?
Mary: 2.

Rayzel: Okay, so just the 2 and you lost about how much weight each round?
Mary: Each round I did the injections at 125 every morning in my belly and I lost, it’s really funny cause I lost a lot at front the first round, it’s about 23 pounds or so for the entire 40 days because I have a big goal. And it seemed like the majority of the weight was lost right at the beginning and I really kind of lost a little hard at first cause I thought “Oh God, if anyone’s been a chronic diet like I have often times it’s just water.” I remember my last week on my first round in P2, I mean, it was like a pound a day. So wait a minute.
Rayzel: So it’s like a kick back up?
Mary: This is it. I said, this is really happening. And when you’re 500 calories a day you really do want that reinforcement. My 2nd round was a little more steady. I never lost a pound a day but I read on this thing online, the average person weighs a pound a day; maybe they’re putting men in there.
Rayzel: Men tend to but women I almost never see that. There’s been like 3 people out of like thousands that I’ve seen that did that.
Mary: So yeah, that wasn’t me. But when I put the pen to paper I also lost the same amount of weight but just a little more steadily, gradually. It was about 23-25 pounds. I think I told you before that I was nervous because I was losing weight between rounds and I’m sure we’ll talk about P3 in a minute but—
Rayzel: Right, I know yes we’ll talk about that too. But I wanted to mention just with your story about the pattern of your weight loss I think that’s a great thing for people to hear about because it does vary from person to person and even within the same person from round to round it varies. I have the same experience. Sometimes when you’re first starting, people can- it’s scary, cause you don’t know if what’ happening is normal or you’re doing something wrong and of course you want the best result possible but it is normal sometimes some rounds you lose the majority in the first part of the round and then it’s really slow and like you mentioned- you’re not the first person to mention this that towards the very end if you do a long round of it, weight loss can actually pick up again. So that’s kind of interesting. And like you said other rounds it can be steadier like a ton of .4, like forever in a day. But in the end you still end up getting to that same number.
Mary: Here’s another thing for people that maybe are getting discouraged with those .4s is those used to be a celebration for me at Weight Watchers after a week of depriving myself of everything. You know I take a .4 off all day long.
Rayzel: Especially because if you’re thinking about it being the ideas that you want to be losing fat. I do feel that this allows your body to access more fat than normal versus muscles. That’s actually a of calories in a sense as far as losing fat on your body.
Mary: Some people say, 500 calories how can you survive? I’ve got nachos here, hamburgers here.
Rayzel: Plenty for my body to feed up.
Mary: I’m good. I’m not gonna starve.
Rayzel: Yeah I think that’s really encouraging for people to know, do expect that to vary and it’s normal. Can you talk about the low point that you reached before you started this protocol cause you have a kind of an interesting story about that.
Mary: Yeah, you know, it’s funny I wished I had done the hCG when I first heard about hCG which was a few years ago. Like I said, I’m the person that was like 500 calories? That’s crazy! But I had an injury a couple of years ago and broke a bunch of bones in my left foot. My left foot. My story. I wasn’t able to exercise to keep my weight in check and it just went up and up, gradually. Up and up and up and up and then I got married and it went way up. And I was at doctor’s appointment and the doctor gave me a referral to go to- I’m a military spouse and the insurance here will cover the old school gastric bypass and it’s the many different choices you have this days it’s the most draconian. They’re cutting your stomach out basically.
Rayzel: You were starting to consider gastric bypass, were they like taking a large part of your organ out.
Mary: The doctor, they wanted to send me to my insurance to pay for, it’s like Weight Watchers but it’s not Weight Watchers, it was either that or just hearing your doctor say, “You know gastric bypass is a solution to your obvious problems” was like the way to go. My numbers have always been great, my blood panel, I’m super healthy and obviously there’ something that needed to be addressed and my husband loves me just the way I am and anyway perhaps he probably loves me, the me too. So I went to they make you go have the insurance pay for your major surgery, they make you go to this information session at the hospital and I went and I remember “Oh my god, that’s not me, I can’t, no, no, no.” I mean, absorption problems later on, that you won’t be able to—you’re probably have to take multivitamins for the rest of your life and I’m just kind of a more natural person.
Rayzel: Yeah, that was like really drastic to consider it.
Mary: Yeah, it seemed really, really intense and so I drove home and I was crying cause I just- oh and by the way, I was barely fitting in my driver seat of my car- things were starting, like my body in space was starting to be an issue, like airplane seats suddenly seemed small. What? No wait, Kevin Smith has this problem. I don’t have this problem. So you know it was just so many factors and the world is not kind. I grew up kind of being the chubby kid and always fighting with my way and so to be that heavy was devastating and I was willing to maybe not have the surgery but I was willing to try something that seemed a little cuckoo or at least learn more about it. So I got back in touch with my friend who told me about it. She was really encouraging and I found a place here in my town a clinic, with a naturopath doctor to check me out and walk me through it and took the plunge.
Rayzel: That’s cool. So you thought it was crazy and now you think it’s great.
Mary: Oh yeah. I go to Kelly’s. It stills sounds bananas.
Rayzel: Yeah on the surface, yeah you’re like “Huh?”
Mary: “Hu-what?”
Rayzel: That’s what I use to think about intermittent fasting too. I used to think that was like so I read cause all I read were like newsstand Fitness Magazines which of course have the most up-to-date information that’s accurate so yeah, it’s like, “No, you’re starving yourself” and after a while “Oh wow, I feel like I know so much more now.”
Mary: And you’re probably in ketosis too when you’re doing the fasting and when you’re IF?
Rayzel: You know I don’t know that I get into ketosis cause I only eat carbs when I’m not fasting and I only fast for like 20-24 hours at a time so I don’t think it’s long enough to go into ketosis.
Mary: I was curious about it.
Rayzel: If I ever wanted to lose more weight like if I low carb and did fasting definitely but I eat a lot of fruits so. I’m now low carb day to day life. I have to support my crossfit habit which requires some carbs.
Mary: Yeah and you look great and I love you’re crossfitting and I would totally be there with you but my foot is just not amazing.
Rayzel: Yeah, that’s a problem.
Mary: I had a question for you.
Rayzel: Sure.
Mary: How many rounds of hCG did you do? 4?
Rayzel: No I did 5.
Mary: You did 5.
Rayzel: And 1 was a failure.
Mary: Oh that’s right your 2nd one.
Rayzel: Yeah. So it’s not like it took me 5 rounds to lose the weight that I lost. It’s that I had to fix 1 round and then the others technically I’m about the same weight that I was at the end of my 3rd round. The difference is losing fat and then gaining muscle then losing fat then gaining muscle. So I’m a size 4 at this weight whereas before I was like a size 8 at the same weight.
Mary: Okay. I’ve been curious about that. It’s kind of like your hCG rounds were like my college years. There was one that was not quite—
Rayzel: And I learned a lot from it. It allows me to help people and to understand and have compassion because yeah.
Mary: Yeah. A failure to launch sometimes is more educational than a total stellar success.
Rayzel: So you had 2 first weeks on hCG since you’ve done 2 rounds and when we talked about it originally you mentioned to kind of having a different experience with each one. I wanted you to kind of share how that first week went on each round. What was different about it? Why was it different?
Mary: I think the most- what was so different about the 2nd round is that I discovered you. During my first round and did a clean load my 2nd round and I also never left P3 between my round.
Rayzel: So you’ve been eating clean for quite a while.
Mary: Right. Right.
Rayzel: So how did you actually feel the first time you did hCG that first week. What did that feel like?
Mary: I hate to tell people that. But you know I’ve also heard some people just, they have 1 day feeling moody or crappy. I was not. I was at a full addiction withdrawal. I mean fetal position pretty much. Atkins people call it a carb flu, even though it’s technically eating carbs with the fruit, I didn’t have the melba.
Rayzel: Yeah. Just way less than—
Mary: It’s way less. It’s like switching to keto- you know to my body fat for fuel.
Rayzel: What kind of fruits were you- cause with this first one I think it’s important for people to know what to expect and there are ways to kind of remediate it or mitigate it to make it better which we’ll talk about. So how are you eating before, like you said, cause there’s that carb withdrawal and I have that too on hCG that first round. And actually fetal position, that type of thing, totally. Like “Oh my god, if this is gonna stay like this, there’s no way I can get through this.” But it does go away.
Mary: It does.
Rayzel: So how are you eating before that it made it so different?
Mary: I’ve been pretty much most of my adult life a vegetarian and not that that automatically means you’re a carbo boar but for me it did. It just meant I was not eating as much protein. Some vegetarians do it beautifully where they’re eating a lot of eggs and tofu and seitan and all that stuff but I wasn’t, I was a carbo boar.
Rayzel: So what kind of foods? What kind of carbs?
Mary: I thought I was being healthy. I’m eating whole grains, healthy whole grains, right, they go together. I don’t think I bought white bread and there’s this baguette in Paris, you know what I mean? I like purchase white bread in 15 years seriously. But…
Rayzel: A lot of grains still.
Mary: Vegetables. I’ve always been a healthy eater I just was eating too much and then having binges. After my injury it was just exacerbated the weight gain because I didn’t have my old trick. Which some people could have classified as exercise bulimia. I’ve beeni n the gym for 3 hours.
Rayzel: Wow, really obsessive.
Mary: Yeah, I was a little obsessive and that has been the biggest change this time and why it’s been so freeing and so nice is that mental obsession has been lifted. I can’t explain it. I would get up in the middle of the night and eat. Blood sugar is I’m sure, like I said, addiction, it’s so soothing but this has been a real blessing. Did I answer your question?
Rayzel: Yeah you did, we can actually- let’s keeping talking about that was another thing we’re gonna get to- basically you were eating- you had a higher carb weight eating before and just for everyone else out there, sometimes when you first get on hCG it’s like you can go through carb withdrawals and it feels horrible and even detoxing a little bit if you’ve been eating crappy foods which actually doesn’t sound like you’re eating too bad but some people have been eating a lot of fast food.
Mary: Right, well my load was epic.
Rayzel: Oh, gotcha. So for first load was just with whatever which includes whatever, probably tons of dessert or I don’t know.
Mary: Right, [inaudible] I cry. You’ll laugh and I know you’ll laugh and I think people will relate to this if they knew, they’ll relate. But yeah I probably had a higher than average- Oh Christmas is sad in the standard American diet, probably not if we will look at that old pyramid with the 6-11 servings of grain a day which is just like cuckoo shot. Oh my gosh. I was really right on target. But yeah, I’ve been loading with stuff I wouldn’t normally eat. I think I had- I remember [inaudible] market, it’s a chicken establishment that is closed on Sunday. I went there-
Rayzel: An epic meal there-
Mary: Epic, epic. It’s so funny when you’re doing the load if you’re a compulsive overeater. Part of it feels like I’ve been here before and then part of it also feels like it’s my duty.
Rayzel: Well it feels like a qualified excuse a little bit. Oh well, I’m suppose the book says, like so. But then that’s what you really want to do anyway is eat food.
Mary: Here’s the 2 times I cried. The first one I cried is when the doctor in my hCG clinic told me, well he told me how much weight I’ll lose, blah blah blah. And it’s’ probably gonna be a lifelong commitment for me at least, no sugar, no starches. He said some people can bring them back in they call it [inaudible]he claimed it. But he said he lost 60 something pounds, older man, great shape, I personally just don’t miss it. I was like “Hu huh u” No Easter bunny, no Santa Claus. That’s when I realize I have an addiction. I thought maybe I had before but like, it was like taking my would be away. The 2nd time I cried was I was listening to your podcast about the clean loading because during my first P2 you fantasize about the load. Once you stop feeling sick for a minute, part of the carb flu is just you don’t think about food, it’s ingenious how they do it, ingenious. Cause you don’t look at them, you can’t look food in the eye for a little while and then it comes back and then you think “Ohhh, ohhh, ohhh” and you said you went on a clean load and you had chicken thighs and stuff and I was like “What! Croissants.” And then you know Lo, Behold when it was time for me to do my second round I was like, you know what, I worked too hard and that’s- honestly, it was the freedom from the obsession more than worrying about weight, more than worrying about being set back even further. It was the freedom of not thinking about the sugar or my next meal every 5 seconds that made me want to do the clean load and so glad that I did. It was so much easier at first week.
Rayzel: Was it? So you don’t feel as crappy after doing a clean load. That’s good.
Mary: No, but there was definitely that, oh here we go again. But the physical stuff was so much easier. I think I did a little bit of detoxing-
Rayzel: But much less than
Mary: Oh my gosh, yes.
Rayzel: Yeah that was the conclusion I came to too. I didn’t clean load to like gain less weight or anything. It’s that realization that I don’t think it’s a healthy thing to kind of almost plan a round of hCG in a sense so that I can load, you know what I mean? To have a reason and I found myself thinking that way and I was like, I just- that’ s probably not a good thing.
Mary: You said if you have- you said it the nicest way- if you have an issue like mine you might want to think about and I was thinking “She’s crazy.” And that was when I cried I was like “[inaudible] me too”. I just felt looking forward to.
Rayzel: You know what’s funny is I think everyone goes through this whole transformation in different way because to be honest when I first started my first round, you said your doctor telling you like you’re going to have to change your life forever, when I started my first round I was completely addicted to sugar, I had no intention of changing how I ate long term. I really didn’t because I didn’t see how that was even humanly possible. I was like I can do this diet for 40 days but there’s no way I could even mentally fathom not eating sugar after.
Mary: That’s crazy talk.
Rayzel: Yeah. I started out that way but then like as you said once your body detoxes a bit you stop craving that stuff, all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh”, you don’t realize that it’s actually a different state of being and we can actually go ahead and talk about that now like you said before you used to feel hungry all the time and we can talk about that too.
Mary: [inaudible] some money.
Rayzel: Yeah, I know, I’ll put a link to it. So just go ahead and tell me what your experience has been with that. How you actually feel about food and eating.
Mary: Where do I start? I mean you know. Food. FOOD. I love food and I love to cook. My first round my husband was in the military and he was not here so I think it was a little easier. I’m just focusing on me, just focusing on what I have to do and the 2nd round was cooking for him. I was around food more. You inspired me with those gloves.
Rayzel: I don’t even remember where was I wearing this? Which video?
Mary: These are the gloves you wear if you’re [inaudible]
Rayzel: Really? I don’t even remember. I’ve done so many videos that I don’t remember.
Mary: I know, that’s so cute though. You know honestly I will always have a complicated relationship with food. It’s just a lot less complicated. I’m a lot less needy. Food and I have been married or going steady or something. I’ve become a much cooler girlfriend.
Rayzel: Cool, less co-dependent.
Mary: Absolutely, yeah. I really love my food now. I’ve kind of adapted a more of a Paleo- you do CrossFit, you probably- I don’t eat any grain, I don’t eat any beans that were a shift.
Rayzel: Okay, cause being vegetarian, that’s usually
Mary: I cut the beans and the like but I have to say I feel really good. My skin is cleared up a lot. I love my food and I’m very, very careful now that I eat meat, about where I get it, who I’m buying it from, what did my meat eat. Those kinds of questions are really important. People are so removed from their food and I used to be one of them and when you’re coming from a vegan vegetarian background which I was almost for 20 years vegetarian, I think I was vegan for like maybe 6 months and I got trip out [inaudible] honey. But you know you’re used to eating these products that are not whole food. I was eating TVP Textured Vegetable Protein, it’s just [inaudible] food
Rayzel: Yeah still going process
Mary: If somebody- if that’s the choice they’re making. I’m so for it. I think it’s great. This is a way of eating that makes sense to me and my body. I’m able to hear my body a little better. I’ve been a yoga teacher for 10 years, did I say that?
Rayzel: No, no.
Mary: Yeah so the weight has been problem and my foot obviously but you know—so that was part of the vegetarian thing. It’s a Buddhist idea of non-violence. The meats I do eat are very, very careful about where it’s coming from and like I said from whom it’s coming from and what their practices are. I’m having more of a relationship with my food than I did before.
Rayzel: But in like a healthier way.
Mary: I’m just not as obsessive. I’m interested.
Rayzel: Yeah and you had also mentioned to me that you used to just feel hungry all the time.
Mary: All the time.
Rayzel: Talk about that a little and how that changed.
Mary: Some people take a great pride of being able to drink someone under the table; I could always eat someone under the table. It was like my hunger was like people say “Is it head hungry or is it belly hungry?’’ and when you’re in that kind of fugue state that I lived in it’s both. It’s both. I understand what they mean but I think how the placebo effect is it’s here but it works. So even if I was head hungry I felt hungry. It didn’t really matter. That never helped me.
Rayzel: Yeah, it’s like either way I feel unsatisfied unless I ate.
Mary: I’m thinking “Where’s the cake?”
Rayzel: Yeah, just stuff in and pass it.
Mary: So that whole enlightened eating, gentle eating, I’ve tried all these things about how to become more aware. I have a meditation practice in my yoga practice and why can’t I bring my meditation practice to my food. I’m just not wired in that place unless I’m in a ketotic- ketogenic—
Rayzel: Ketogenic, hey, I like the word ketotic, that’s cool. I make up words from time to time.
Mary: Yeah, unless I’m in that physical state, my brain is gonna go cuckoo. It’s horrible. I think of all the years, I wished I’ve done this years ago. I really, really do.
Rayzel: Yeah and so a lot of people aren’t familiar with ketosis but basically you eat under a certain amount of carbs each day after a number of days your body will be in ketosis where it’s like fat burning mode. It’s not like living on carb. Instead of using carbs for your main fuel source and it’s different. How does that feel being in ketosis, how does that feel different to you?
Mary: Well, I thought I would be in this big brain fog for one thing and I’m feeling bright and clear, I’m able to write. I write a lot and I feel like it takes a little getting used to. I sleep really well which surprised me because I read online that sometimes people have a hard time sleeping but hCG I slept like a baby and I think part of that is because I was in ketosis. Now that I’m practicing ketosis like, oh okay. It’s not that it’s not the hormone necessarily; it’s the state my body got into. It feels really good and it feels really good because I know even if I have a little indulgence, for me little indulgence like maybe a couple ounces of macadamia nuts or dark chocolate or whatever. I know for a fact I ate more than 2000 calories. I know that it’s not gonna trip me, it just not, not if I have a big piece of birthday cake that might be different but I will also feel goofier like I had a slip with some wine, not too long ago, my father passed and we had some wine in his memorial. Compare to what I used to drink I was very modest, I had 3 glasses of wine over an evening. A. The next day I was hangover so now I’m a white wake and B one of the first things I thought about when I woke up, and this is January, was I’m hungry. Not only am I hungry, I want a bagel. Which is a hangover food but that’s what I was thinking like “Oh, there’s a bagel shop” and then “Oh my God”.
Rayzel: And you haven’t thought like that in a while.
Mary: Luckily since around the New Year. So it was like, Oh there was it again and I recognize that voice.
Rayzel: That’s a really common thing like you said with carb withdrawals, I actually talked about this in one post, I don’t remember which one it was but just that if you eat, carbs make you hungrier and carbs make you hungry sooner and crave more carbs in. So if you eat a lot of carbs at night before bed it’s like you’ll wake up feeling ravenous, I’ve felt that before and it’s so weird. Wait, I ate more than usual and I’m waking up just 8 hours later feeling hungrier than normal.
Mary: It makes no sense.
Rayzel: It’s very interesting. But then when you take that out of the picture, you actually in ketosis you don’t feel really hungry all the time anymore right or crave?
Mary: Now this is first, you ask me how I feel different and why I feel differently. I have to remind myself to eat and I love my food, it’s not like it’s unappetizing to me. I’m like “Oh you k now what, it’s 3 I should probably eat something.” I eat a lot of bone broth because I’m trying to heal my foot. There’s a book called Healing Tooth Decay or something like that, basically, anything that’s good for your teeth is good for your bones, makes sense. [Inaudible] stuff right now but I have to remind myself like “Oh, I got to eat something before I take the supplement”. I have people say I forgot to eat.
Rayzel: And you’re like “What? Whatever? I don’t even get what that’s all about.”
Mary: What are you talking about? I forgot to breathe. So now it’s like “Ohhhh, I get it”.
Rayzel: I know and it’s like you used to think those people were just really lucky or something like I wish I could feel that way but I’ve never felt that in my life. I remember thinking that same thing and I’m the same as you now. I get so busy when I’m doing hCG so I’m like you “Oh gosh, it’s 3 o’clock. I’m gonna eat something cause I need to do something else”. I never thought that I could cause I could out eat my husband, basically I did, every day and he’s like almost 6 feet tall and he weight 185 and I’m 5’1.
Mary: You never outweighed him did you?
Rayzel: No, but I was being close.
Mary: I have. I outweighed my—
Rayzel: Did you? I was close. I didn’t like that feeling. It didn’t feel very good. Or just like when his shorts, they fit my waist and I’m like almost a foot shorter and then I was like that didn’t feel very good.
Mary: Like when you’re pregnant but not.
Rayzel: Yeah. And I know a lot of woman deal with that too. But it was nice to get away from that. So you are in ketosis on Phase 2, were you?
Mary: Yes.
Rayzel: And that’s because you didn’t eat the Melba and then you only eat 1 fruit a day. Is that right?
Mary: Yeah it was a green apple.
Rayzel: Okay. Which is lower in carbs. So just for everyone else, if you do the diet as it’s written like with the melba and both fruits, you may or may not get into ketosis, it may be too many carbs and you have to do that to lose weight well but if you do do that, what’s nice about ketosis is it adds to the non-hunger effect. When I took fruits out on the protocol it was like you even on VLCD I just wasn’t hungry, I just didn’t care about food, so that really helped. It just made it easier to do the diet surprisingly, you know.
Mary: It seems like “Oh God, that’s one less thing I can eat.” But how your body feels, for me at least, this is what you’re talking; it just made the hunger thing a little easier. I wasn’t as focused.
Rayzel: Once you’re on it you realize how important that is, to getting through it. Now in Phase 3 with ketosis maybe we can just talk about that a little bit now. What food groups basically do you eat in everyday life with Phase 3 that keeps you in ketosis as well?
Mary: Okay. More vegetables in a vegetarian, I mean more fresh vegetables and actually now I’m picking my vegetables on purpose too for the bone and teeth thing. Cooking lightly your vegetables, raw is good, lightly cooked is supposed to be more bioavailable the vitamins. Lot of vegetables, lot of good fatty meat, organ meat.
Rayzel: You mentioned that, you’re eating a lot of liver.
Mary: I order from this farmer, Slanker Meats in Texas, you should call him. He [inaudible] primal ground which is a ground beef, it’s all grass-fed. Pastured beef, ground beef and then it’s like 30% liver, he hides it in there, I think maybe a little kidney, a little spleen, I don’t even want to know.
Rayzel: From grass-fed animals. Awesome.
Mary: It’s already kind of hidden in there for you. In fact I just had a salad. I’ve got recipes by the way.
Rayzel: Good.
Mary: I mention that in the email.
Rayzel: Yeah. Please.
Mary: A lot of organ meat. Eggs with the yolk. I do a lot of bone broth, I mentioned that before. I love seaweed. I know that sound weird.
Rayzel: No I do.
Mary: Okay that doesn’t sound weird to you.
Rayzel: But just the dry nori sheets. I use to just eat those plain. They’re so good.
Mary: I eat those. I put them in the bone broth sometimes in the morning with an egg. I also eat a lot of- probably more than I should- cheese. I do raw and grass-fed cheese, as much as possible. It’s available as it can be.
Rayzel: You do nuts too, right? You’re able to eat nuts.
Mary: Nuts but I do a soak and I dehydrate my nuts.
Rayzel: Oh great. So they’re kind of slightly sprouted in a sense.
Mary: Yes. It’ supposed to get rid of the phytic acid. I don’t know if that’s true or not but I do know that my teeth are nice and strong and my last visit to the doctor it looks like my bones growing back in my foot which have been a real problem so—
Rayzel: Awesome. That’s so cool.
Mary: Fermented cod liver oil which is so gross.
Rayzel: I have that too. Wait, which brand do you have? Maybe it’s the same.
Mary: Green Pasture.
Rayzel: Yeah, the same brand. People thought cod liver oil was bad, wait till you try fermented cod liver oil. It’s so gross and I make my son eat it.
Mary: Good. You’re a good mother.
Rayzel: It’s like okay, just chug it down and then we’ll have something sweet.
Mary: I’m so glad. Which one did you- Cinnamon?
Rayzel: No it’s actually non-flavored.
Mary: The one I get before. You’re hard core.
Rayzel: Yeah.
Mary: So I do that especially in the mornings I do that and usually before dinner half a teaspoon. That’s really about it plus those horrible to someone that hasn’t already been through.
Rayzel: Right. I know.
Mary: You know it would totally sound horrible to me 6 months ago.
Rayzel: Yeah you’re like “What?”
Mary: “And you’re bragging?”
Rayzel: Yeah but that’s what the cool thing is that you never saw yourself like this on a regular basis either, right? Originally.
Mary: Oh and sardines.
Rayzel: Oh I love sardines. Cool. Do you eat fruit? Do you eat fruit at all?
Mary: I don’t really love fruit. If I do, I like berries.
Rayzel: So it’s not a big part of your diet?
Mary: No, I thought it was going to be when I was eating more sweets and sugar. I thought that was going to be my new go to right?
Rayzel: Right. Yeah.
Mary: I don’t really miss it and it will kick me right out of ketosis.
Rayzel: Yeah, still carbs and sugars so.
Mary: But dark chocolate doesn’t as quickly and I’m not sure why that is, I don’t know if it just has less- I don’t know. Dark chocolate.
Rayzel: Well, that’s encouraging for everybody because I have my post in P3, the thing is it that the full point here is that you’ve been able to maintain your weight loss between rounds. It’s been a couple of months since your last round. You said you’re very stable right?
Mary: Very stable.
Rayzel: Some people don’t know what they can eat and be stable. I try to address that but the real thing is just htat it does vary for person to person. Sometimes I suggest if you’re having trouble and you’re eating nuts and dairy try taking one or two of those out but then there’s plenty of people who can stabilize fine with nuts and dairy which you’re one of this people.
Mary: I’m really lucky and I don’t have major food allergies. I have a friend that’s allergic to eggs and they’re e in a lot of thing. I mean it’s just been really- who knows, I’ve got another 2 rounds in front of me. You got me right in the middle which I think should be a [inaudible] love to talk to you in 6 months.
Rayzel: Yes, I’ll do a follow up. How much further are you kind of hoping to get do you think?
Mary: Probably another- I want to be under 150. For me, it’s not a matter of beating myself up over a goal. It’s okay to move the goal post. So if I get to 150 and I’m like [inaudible] another 21 days, we’ll see. We’ll see. I know I have the capacity. I’ll probably lose nice and slow.
Rayzel: Yeah, that’s so cool.
Mary: Those 7 pounds you lost. Hard earned.
Rayzel: Yeah they were. That was—I kind of think that might have been, for me, I tried to exercise that round at the start and I think it stalled me out. Actually the next round after that I think I lost more. I don’t know. Let’s get back to you. I don’t remember. So now with Phase 3, you’re stable, those are the foods you’re eating. About how many grams of carbs do you try to stay under to stay in ketosis?
Mary: I try to stay under 50 but I rarely do. The aforementioned you know nuts have carbs. I love carbs and the chocolate. Anything under a 60 to 65 I generally will have a—
Rayzel: Yeah show us the special thing that tracks your ketones.
Mary: It just helps me kind of figure out; I do it the morning after kind of after I weigh myself instead of taking an hCG shot I just check my ketone level. It’s called Ketonix. It’s from Sweden. Basically you plug into a USB port. This is the cheaper; this is not the sport edition, just under $100. If anyone who’s testing their ketones, it’s expensive, those strips and they’re also not very reliable. This is turning out to be show you its working. It’s really reliable. It starts out blue and then you blow into it, it’s like a breathalyzer, and you can get a green, yellow or red right. The green is a light trace of ketones which means you’re in ketsosis but you’re right on the edge of not being in ketosis.
Rayzel: So don’t have a piece of chocolate after that.
Mary: For instance. Or just watch it. Watch it. You’re about to not be in ketosis. I’ve never actually had the red which is hard core ketosis because I believe in living my life and I only get hardcore when I’m actually taking the hCG. That’s the only time I’m gonna be- I mean I’m gentle with myself now I wasn’t before. But I blew a yellow today, I was like “Mar it!” I mean I’m turning into such a super nerd getting excited about liver and moderate ketosis. I’m getting old!
Rayzel: That’s so funny. Cool. Thanks for sharing that. That’s just a nice device for people who are really serious about getting into that.
Mary: It’s great, it’s really interesting and I can see while I’m not tracking as seriously as I was in the first few weeks of P3. I can usually think back to my last meal and say “Okay, what is going on?” and “Oh”. That’s how I figure out the Macadamia nuts were actually making it go. You know I can have 2 handfuls instead of 4.
Rayzel: Cool. Yeah. You know by the handful. Let’s talk now about how- so you’ve had 2 P3s, your first P3 you actually ended up losing a significant amount of weight during that time. Why don’t you talk about that?
Mary: I did and it worried me because everything I’ve read in the protocol because they gave me Simeons’ protocol said you want to stay within that range, that 2 pound on either side of that injection, for me injection, and I keep losing and losing. Not a pound a day.
Rayzel: Were you tracking your calories during that time or now?
Mary: Yeah.
Rayzel: So about how many calories were you eating when you were losing in P3?
Mary: My first couple of weeks both times of P3 I was around 12 to 16. I think my first day was 900 and I felt so scared. I think that’s really normal. But I keep losing, not hCG losing but—
Rayzel: Gradually it’s going down.
Mary: Almost 14 or 15 pounds. I even got a little cocky. I was like maybe I don’t need this hCG stuff anymore. I can stay in P3 because I was enjoying my food and then I thought, you know what, that’s just crazy. When have I ever lost weight like that? Let’s just do this again. Let’s just stay on track.
Rayzel: You lost about 15 pounds during Phase 3 over what span of time was that?
Mary: It was over 2 months. It’s just about 2 months. Then I started my last Phase 2 in the late April so I was doing hCG on my 40th birthday. I stayed home. I had no problem being 40, I’m fine with it but my friends down in Austin they were worried about me. They thought I was really upset about turning 40.
Rayzel: Depressed.
Mary: That I didn’t want to come down and party. It was really just cause I’m on hCG. For me it was like I didn’t want to booze out cause I’ve never cheated.
Rayzel: That’s a good question too. Even at difficult times like that for you, you stuck to the protocol.
Mary: I either stirred away from the problem cause you know, No Austin or I would just show up prepared. I was like that boy scout “Be Prepared!” Always had a green apple with me or something. You just got a plan. You only have 500 calories there’s a lot less wiggle room with that amount. If you’re prepared in advance, and I think it’s a good idea just in your life. Sure there’s [inaudible] spontaneity for sure but if I went to a new restaurant I always, you have the internet; you don’t have to call anyone or harass them like what’s in your [inaudible].
Rayzel: Just look it up.
Mary: Okay I see what I’m gonna order. I’m portable now. But yeah I was really serious about not cheating. If I was going to have a surgery, seriously considering a surgery, I wasn’t gonna do this wrong. I would complain and moan a lot. I’m sure my husband wished I cheated.
Rayzel: Yeah like “Stop whining and just eat the chocolate.”
Mary: “Here’s some cheesecake, shut up woman!” He’s been really good in supporting.
Rayzel: So with some moaning and groaning you made it through.
Mary: Made it through. That 2nd round was actually harder.
Rayzel: Because you were cooking for your husband you said. Gotcha. Now would you say that you did kind of alter how you did things when you were on Phase 2 versus like you know saying going out with friends as much. Did you feel like you’ve turned more social things down while you’re on Phase 2?
Mary: You have to or you just pack lunch or pack your dinner. Yeah. I found myself no parties, no thanks, no thanks. It’s only for 40 my FOMO, do you know what FOMO is? Fear Of Missing Out. It’s already pretty low. I’ve had a beer, I’ve had the laughs, I have my friends. I think it’s probably a little easier for me to do this protocol now than it would have been in my 20s. As much as I complain and wish I’ve had done it in my 20s I think it’s easier now because I’m a homebody. I like to cook and handle my dog. It worked out for me in that way but I definitely had to turn some stuff down that made me a little bit sad.
Rayzel: Sometimes you have to do that. It’s only for the few weeks, that’s what I try to tell people. You can’t always make everything go away completely. Yeah but to the extent that you can, you know sometimes it’s worth just being a little homebody a little more. Just while you’re on the diet just to help you get through it.
Mary: I look at it as self-care. I looked at it as if it was some I had some cleanses under my belt. If you’re in a real serious hard core cleanse, the last thing you want to do is go out. Your stomach is messed up for one thing. It’s also just a time for yourself. You’re taking time for yourself. That’s a big lesson especially like moms I know, it’s always about your kids. I think it’s probably a really good thing for people to take that time and put that FOMO away cause you’re not missing anything except your big butt or whatever it is you’re trying to lose eventually. Navigating cheating, cheating on hCG and I totally-
Rayzel: Oh yeah, like with moms- sorry, came back to me. Just like with moms you know like you said doing self-care because I think it’s very hard sometimes you feel like you’re being selfish or guilty or not giving to your family or your husband or whoever by doing this because actually to be honest I couldn’t even handle cooking – I did do some cooking on hCG for my family but not all the time. I couldn’t handle it as much as I would have normally done and my son ate more granola bars while I was on hCG. You could view that’s being a bad mom but the thing that I was looking at the long term is my life and the life of my family is very different now as a result of the changes I’ve made that I had to baby myself for a little while or there’s no way I could’ve made those changes at all. Period. And I’d still be eating gallons of ice cream and at this point now that my son’s 5, he would be eating them with me. But because I let him eat a few extra granola bars and let my husband fend for himself a little bit for a few weeks. Now, it’s like, yeah, I feed him fermented cod liver oil which he’s probably not gonna thank me for anytime soon but being able to make that change that I had to baby myself a little.
Mary: I’m glad you did and then you made it okay for a lot of people to baby themselves too.
Rayzel: Yeah, you’re just realizing that, you know, give yourself that-
Mary: And what good is mama if mama is angry at herself all the time and feeling bad physically and emotionally. It’s worth it to take that time.
Rayzel: You know you said you went through some crappy times recently but you were surprised that you still maintained your weight. Can you tell me why you think you were able to still maintain during that difficult time.
Mary: I think a lot of them were just the benefit of being ketosis is that you don’t have the hunger and it’s so much easier for me to make that [inaudible] between their food and my food. Their whisky sours, my mineral water. Do you know what I mean? It’s a little easier you don’t have that fear of missing out. I was really surprised especially like I said my father passed away. We were in and out of town. I’ve always had a cooler with me with my cod liver oil and everything else I need. My mom doesn’t even question anymore. She just makes room for me in my fridge.
Rayzel: Cool. So it’s kind of like you’ve really committed to it and you’ve made it a habit and it seems like maybe enough time had gone by with your new habits that it was easier to just kind of keep doing what you’re doing now.
Mary: Yeah and I don’t have the temptation. My brain really sees the food and the alcohol differently and the sugar. It’s not my food. It’s not even food.
Rayzel: Right, and I do think that is the benefit of being in ketosis and also of time cause I’m not in ketosis anymore but I’ve had my healthy habits long enough now that like you said there’s just certain things I don’t eat and I don’t think about it cause it’s been so long. It would actually be hard to make myself eat certain thing like I haven’t actually had chocolate in like 2 years.
Mary: That’s one of those- it’s that food.
Rayzel: I was addicted to chocolate cake like every day almost. I don’t crave it anymore and sometimes I think like “Oh’’. It’s been so long it would be hard to break that chain.
Mary: Right. For me I can’t say I’m always gonna be, I’m not gonna try to be in ketosis my whole life but that’s good to hear that you’re not in ketosis that you also had the shift in your perspective about what it is for you and what is not for you.
Rayzel: Yeah. For sure.
Mary: I had a lifetime of that. Do you know David Sedaris, the writer? He’s so funny, oh my god you should check him out. He quit smoking, he’s like a famous smoker and he quit smoking. At a certain point he said I’ve had enough cigarettes in my life. At this poing I think I need to stop. I’ve reached my maximum of anyone should be able to have and get away with it. I kind of feel that way. That’s to say I’ll never have, never say never, just in maintenance at least, for me it was relatively easy and I was really surprised. The second P3 for me was not as magic like “Oh, I’m still losing weight”. I was afraid to even say it out loud cause if someone said that to me I would get out of here.
Rayzel: Get away.
Mary: I can’t help it. You got me. Get out of here. You know, I can’t stand myself but my 2nd round of the P3 was definitely more [sound], it’s like I parked the car.
Rayzel: It’s not going anywhere and empty the gas tank.
Mary: I’m like 3-1/2 pounds under my LIW right now.
Rayzel: And stable there.
Mary: Oh my gosh, freaky stable. I was convinced there was gonna be a huge jump because I didn’t weigh for that whole week of the funeral 2 weeks ago. I drag my cooler but not my scales like I said yesterday. I don’t travel light when I’m doing hCG but I brought my cooler. I was worried to get on the scale.
Rayzel: That’s so nice, huh, like you stopped being nervous after a while of seeing it stay at the same weight?
Mary: Yeah and I’ve had tequila, I’ve had fajitas without the corn, the tortillas, I’ve had steak. I didn’t miss any meals.
Rayzel: And I think that’s great too for everyone to hear because there is that question a lot about whether it’s okay to lose weight in P3. So obviously the fact that you lost weight in Phase 3 didn’t harm your ability to stabilize at another weight lower later because you’re stable on this P3.
Mary: I am so grateful to be parked here. Please understand as much as I love losing that weight, felt like a freebie, I say that but I was not a cheater. I earned it. I’m really, really happy to have that because I feel like the hypothalamus gland clicked down and said okay we’re here now. It makes me feel happy because my next round or 2. Hopefully I’ll be able to park it and then park it. It gives me hope.
Rayzel: Yeah just now that you know like “Okay, this is what it feels like” but it’s cool just that what you did before didn’t hurt your ability to be stable now. So it is okay to lose weight in Phase 3.
Mary: My doctor is like “Great, good for you”.
Rayzel: “And quit your whining!” That is a question people get a lot. You said you love to cook. So I wanted to know what was one of your favorite go to meals on Phase 2 that you created.
Mary: Phase 2. Okay the 2 recipes I’m gonna give you both involve ground beef or ground meat. One is a P2 and one is a P3 friendly. The protocol I was on actually said don’t use ground meat so it was the one thing I kind of put the dice on because it was like no fat in it. You can see it’s bright red.
Rayzel: It’s like 99% fat free or something.
Mary: Right. It was bright red. So the first one, obviously you’re not gonna use any oil but you’re gonna brown your protein, your meat. You can sauté in slivers of garlic if you like garlic, if that’s okay, if you tolerate it well, some people don’t. I use a lot of fresh green onions which is really, really healthy for you, they’re like loaded with all kinds of goodness. Ginger, if you like ginger. And you can use liquid aminos. I snuck in a little fish sauce which is a no no.
Rayzel: Why? Why would fish sauce be no no?
Mary: I’m not sure, I think some of them contain sugar but the brand I was using was literally just anchovies, water.
Rayzel: That’s what I think I have.
Mary: But if you can find sugar free fish sauce. Go to town. It’s a little harder to find it though. Anyway, brown it up, mix it all up and then you just eat it with lettuce. It’s like a delicious little- because you’re eating it with the lettuce for me it just felt like more food. You can just threw it on top of lettuce and made a salad I’m sure that’d be fun too but there’s something like, I like to get my hands on things and [inaudible] like we talked about like “Oh so good.”
Rayzel: So more of an experience that way.
Mary: Yeah, it’s more of a sensual things. Obviously I love those green apples. Those Granny Smiths save my life. I love them love them love them and bake them. That was my big trea t.
Rayzel: So you just like slice them thin and bake them?
Mary: Or when I was at my mom’s she had a corer. Of course she kept saying “Oh honey, I just [inaudible] in there” it’s like “Get away, get away, you woman”. But cinnamon’s great on protocol, its friendly and cinnamon really feels like you’re getting away with something. Cinnamon on the apples and they’re baked it’s just heaven. That’s something I still do. Of course it’s summer now but that’s something I’ll always do. I really didn’t do that before. Slice fresh apples with cinnamon.
Rayzel: Yeah that’s so good too. When you bake them what temperature do you bake them at for how long usually?
Mary: 350 the classic baking temperature. It depends on the slice of the apple and how well you got the core out. You left any in there it doesn’t bake as well. You want that air in there for convection. It heats from the inside out basically, bigger the hole although less apple faster it’ll cook. Bake it for 40 minutes.
Rayzel: So you bake it whole. So actually you’re not cutting it, slicing it up, you’re baking it whole.
Mary: Yeah.
Rayzel: Oh I see, cool. That sounds good.
Mary: Delicious. Or you can slice the apple if you don’t have a corer.
Rayzel: I actually have that peeler that has this pointy jagged edge for coring it too.
Mary: Those will work. In my P3 go to has been really fun and that’s been, do you know the broccoli slaw? First of all, genius, right? I’ve always wondered cause I’ve like to save and [inaudible] I’ve always wondered what happened to the stem? They’re perfectly edible.
Rayzel: You’re right.
Mary: So that’s what happens to the stems so I get the organic it’s in a bag which is nice because it’s convenient. So that’s the salad, I toast up some slivered almonds. You’re doing almonds in P3, some people do and do it well. I chopped up cilantro and that’s the base of the salad and then you can use whatever dressing you like as long as it’s not sugary. I like the balsamic. Today I did that primal ground beef on top but you can do any high protein you want but that’s the base. Broccoli slaw, cilantro, if you like it if you don’t like cilantro, super tasters it tastes like soap, people say it tastes like soap?
Rayzel: I don’t know, I like cilantro so I don’t know.
Mary: I do too. I’m like “Oh that’s so sad”.
Rayzel: You know the thing I love though is fresh Italian parsley sometimes that can be used instead for people that don’t want cilantro.
Mary: Sure, delicious. The toasted almonds really give you that.
Rayzel: Yeah a little crunch there.
Mary: It’s so crunchy and it will make your jaws hurt if you try to eat the whole thing which I have. You know it’s great with salmon base underneath. The cilantro and barbecue sauce for some reason, if you can do a low sugar barbecue sauce, that’s a party. So good.
Rayzel: Cool. And for everyone watching we’ll write out the recipe so you can get them and make them if you want. Also, can you tell me the name of where you’re getting the primal ground beef again?
Mary: His name is Ted Slanker.
Rayzel: Do you think he has a website?
Mary: He does. I think its texasgrassfedbeef.com
Rayzel: Okay cool. There will be a link to that in the show notes too.
Mary: The show notes. I’m so excited.
Rayzel: What advice do you have for others embarking on this protocol? What do you want to tell them?
Mary: Let the haters hate. You’re not gonna change that. I think we’re more beautiful when we’re vulnerable just in general human beings are. I think the more open you are with especially with your loved ones about what you’re going through and what’s going on, you’re gonna get support. Don’t be afraid to be inconvenient. I was- I’m such a people pleaser that I don’t want to inconvenience anyone with my crazy diet, there is another crazy diet, you know cause I have a little track record and stuff. But this is the craziest right? Funny it’s the only one that’s work so far. Don’t be afraid to put yourself first and don’t be scared of hair loss. Did we talk about that yet? Oh goodness. So I started losing hair after week 3, phase 3. It just started coming out. It’s because I’ve lost weight quickly and it’s really normal, it happens, in like 9 cases out of 10 when people have the surgery done, [inaudible] lose hair. It’s growing back. It was about 3 weeks, it really scared me and you can Google it. People say don’t worry, it’ll stop, it’ll grow back but I started taking Bioten.
Rayzel: Yeah Bioten’s great.
Mary: Just in case. I’m not getting enough vitamin B by the way. You know liver smoothies. But just in case I went and got a supplement.
Rayzel: And I’m glad you brought that up because I do get that question a lot and not everyone experiences hair loss but some do, it is expected but that’s the point is it grows back and that it is normal with any type of any stressful situation and losing a lot of weight fast is very common. I’ve lost hair but not after every round, I think it was only after 1 round. I did lose some hair but the thing is I’ve actually had issues with like alopecia where I got bald spots on my head since I was 15 like every other year. But the thing is it always grew back. So I [inaudible] I’ve been through the hair loss thing a number of times and I would actually get bald spots and other people don’t get that. But thankfully I could always hide it. It’s always grown back and it only happened after that one round. Another interview I had actually, she had a recommendation for something that can stop the hair loss. She said it worked for her and other people that she’s been guiding so I’ll just mention it to you too. It’s actually just mixing in some MSM powder in water, in a spray bottle and spraying it not on your hair but actually on you rskin. She’ll do it after she got out of the shower and she said actually that it stopped her hair loss and others that she had do it did too. I haven’t tried it to know but it’s not something that would hurt to try.
Mary: Oh, I just remembered something. Along those lines and I’m gonna try that. MSM powder in a spray. I know all kinds of stuff like that but that sounds great. I had a horrible rash detoxing. Rashes on my legs. Once the flu symptoms went away, the rash went up and I got to my friend that had originally told me about the protocol and she actually works for a wellness center in Dallas Texas and she said “Oh, you gotta get activated charcoal.” And I was like”What?” and of course you know me being so strict, I took it out of the capsule and drink it with water. My rash was gone in 3 days. It was aamazing.
Rayzel: Cause that’s supposed to mop up toxins, right? The activated charcoal.
Mary: That’s what it does. It soaks up. It’s probably heavy metals. More than likely just the type of rash I have cause we store a lot of toxins in our fat.
Rayzel: And I do get people asking about that too from time to time, getting a rash. That’s good the activated charcoal. Also the other thing that’s really good for mopping up stuff is chlorella.
Mary: Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen that in the store, green right?
Rayzel: Chlorella is very good for especially for heavy metals.
Mary: And it’s compatible in hCG?
Rayzel: Yeah, it’s just like little green- That’s good. I’m glad you brought that up actually. That’s cool.
Mary: It was really uncomfortable.
Rayzel: I bet. Was it itchy?
Mary: It was more just hot. It was like, have you had prickly rash? I’m from Texas so we got all kinds of- it’s like a prickly rash in the middle of February. I was like “What is going on?’’ and _____ “you’re detoxing, that’s really good.” She was so excited for me. That’s great that means you’re getting through some of the layers of fat. I was like “Oh man, I don’t want to take this yucky black stuff.” It’s black, it’s charcoal. But it doesn’t taste like anything. In fact I now use it to brush my teeth because I’m crunchy and [inaudible]. Whiten your teeth.
Rayzel: Awesome. Very cool. I think it’s good too that you mention that because I kind of think that you know what you said that toxins are stored in your fat—oh jus that sometimes people feel really crappy on P2. Like I had rounds where I felt horrible and I had rounds where I actually felt quite well. Part of it I think could be, one factor could be that sometimes the fat your losing may contain a lot of toxins and your body is having to process that and it’s circulating like in your bloodstream. That’s where it might be good to be taking stuff like the activated charcoal and the chlorella but that could be why you feel so crummy whereas maybe other fat was cleaner. It’s like you feel better. That’s just kind of my guess.
Mary: I assume it’s like the crust of the earth the different layers, geologic layers. This is the layer where Mary got married, here’s the divorce layer for all toxins. And as you lose weight I think that’s probably what it was.
Rayzel: I have like a diet coke layer. The 2 year everyday diet coke layer. That’s probably like full of aspartame or whatever.
Mary: Oh God. I can’t even- I’m sorry body. I loved it. I still love it. That’s a treat sometime I won’t lie.
Rayzel: Actually, I didn’t have any for llike 2 years cause I was such an addict to it but on occasion I’ll have like one like a diet A&W, so I’m coming clean everybody. On occasion I do lately because it’s not something I’m finding myself needing to have every day because that I don’t feel as healthy but now and then I do have one cause I really like how it taste. Once a month.
Mary: You gotta live. You gotta live. You can choose your battles.
Rayzel: Anything I find myself starting to need or crave, that’s when I’ll cut back. I’m like “Okay I don’t want to get in that place again” but this has been okay.
Mary: Yeah, smart.

Comments

Did Marry eat all the Calories on P2? I know she only ate the one green apple, but did she eat all the vegetables? I’m trying to follow the eat when your hungry and stop when your full (not stuffed). I eat my protein but not all of the vegetable, I’m a little worried that I’m not eating enough so that my body is only taking from the right fat.

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